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GOD OF THE MARGINS

Something has gone terribly wrong. Too many voices have been pushed to the margins. People and gifts ostracized, forgotten, oppressed and ripped off; dismissed from the table and slammed into the margins. We dehumanize them, we scapegoat them, we ignore them. We tell them that being black, female, gay doesn’t matter- that these are meaningless categories that don’t exist, and therefore don’t need to be listened to. Racism, hunger, homelessness, war, xenophobia, closed minds and wallets, wealth and unbridled capitalism, religion turned on its head: a hundred hungry lies separating “us” from “them.”

Oh but God, you are not a voice for exclusion and hate. You are not a hoarder of power who kills to keep what is yours. It was in a barren valley that faith was born, the wilderness, the poverty of homelessness and being a refugee. You yourself are the God of the margins and the God who comes to us from the margins. Those the world calls damned, you called Blessed. Blessed, not damned, are the voices of the margins. So today we add our blessing to yours, and say:

Bless the poor, bless the immigrant, bless the victim of wage theft, bless the inmates and those condemned to death, bless those addicted to drugs and the victims of the war against them, bless the homeless without shelter because we’ve prioritized weapons over welfare, bless victims of abuse and harassment, the unbelieved and unnoticed, bless those caught in the shadows of PTSD, bless the queer voices not granted equality: God bless the marginalized.

Bless those who choose to live and to work in the margins because of our commitment to peace and justice. We’re here, on the margins, because it’s the right thing to do. We’re here because good leaders have called us to join them in the margins. We’re here, because that’s where you’re already at work. As we look around, help us to see that we are not alone. We are part of a community and a movement that can sustain and enliven us, even us. Help us to see that being on the margins – with you, which each other – is exactly where we need to be.

AMEN.

Adapted from the prayer of Marty Troyer at the annual Houston Peace and Justice Center Awards ceremony 2011.